The Flying Biscuit Café has signed a one-café franchise agreement for Greenville, N.C. — the Atlanta-based Southern breakfast brand's first location in eastern North Carolina. Site selection is underway, and an opening date, café size and hiring plans will follow once a lease is signed.

The franchisee and sole owner is Viren Patel, an operator who ran five franchised restaurant locations across two national brands during roughly eight years in Canada before moving to the United States in 2015 and buying into gas station and lodging businesses. He holds a master's degree in chemistry. Flying Biscuit is his first restaurant brand as an owner, and he plans to work in the café day to day rather than run it absentee.

Why Greenville?

The market math is straightforward. The Greenville metro grew 6.5% between 2020 and 2025, from 173,642 residents to an estimated 182,936, per U.S. Census Bureau estimates — among the fastest growth rates of any metro in North Carolina. East Carolina University enrolled 27,153 students and employed 6,230 people in fall 2025, its highest enrollment since 2021. ECU Health, headquartered in Greenville, runs an academic health system serving more than 1.4 million people across 29 eastern North Carolina counties.

The brand's daypart model also fits the operator's economics: Flying Biscuit cafés serve breakfast and lunch only and close at 3 p.m., limiting labor hours. Patel said that schedule drew him to the brand.

"My daughter is the one who pointed out that we live in the South and this is Southern breakfast done right," Patel said. "I ate at Flying Biscuit six or seven times before I ever filled out an application. Greenville has students, young families, people coming off shift at the hospital and retirees. I want a place where all of them end up at the same tables on a Saturday morning."

How the deal came together

Patel said he compared Flying Biscuit against independent breakfast concepts and other franchised cafés before signing, and menu range was the deciding factor. He hopes to add locations across his region over the next five years and has expressed interest in Fayetteville and Jacksonville, N.C., beyond the current agreement.

"North Carolina has become one of our deeper states, and Greenville is exactly the kind of market we want next — a university, a hospital system and a lot of people who are up early," said Andrew Scherzer, partner and director of franchise development for Flying Biscuit Franchising. "Viren has run franchised restaurants for other brands and businesses that were entirely his own, so he knows what each one asks of you. He wants to run this one himself, and Greenville is going to get an owner who knows his regulars by name."

A run of pipeline signings

The Greenville agreement caps a stretch of franchise activity for the brand:

• In North Carolina, Tahir Rafiq and his wife and franchise partner, Zinnia Tahir, signed a lease in North Raleigh for their fourth Flying Biscuit, targeted for the first quarter of 2027.
• Chris Compton opened his second café in downtown Knoxville, Tenn., on Sept. 12, after opening the brand's first Tennessee location in 2025.
• The brand signed its first Missouri lease in St. Charles, outside St. Louis, in August — the first step under a three-café development agreement.
• Matt Thomas signed a two-café development agreement for Palm Beach County, Fla., on Sept. 11.
• Agreements were signed for Nashville and the Tri-Cities region of Tennessee earlier this fall.

Prospective operators can review available territories and investment requirements at flyingbiscuitfranchising.com or call the franchise sales line at 678-726-1884. If Patel's regional expansion interest in Fayetteville and Jacksonville converts into signed agreements, eastern North Carolina could move from a one-café toehold to a multi-unit territory within five years.